Each year we undertake an extensive program of public policy and company engagement work to support our members as active owners. By working together through ACSI, your fund’s voice is amplified in the board rooms of Australian companies and in the policy debates in Canberra. Through our research, engagement, advocacy and voting advice, we aim to deliver material improvements to ESG practices at the listed companies your fund invests in. In FY24 we built on wins of years past and continued to be the major Australian asset owner voice for good governance and prudent management of ESG risks.

Like our members, we embrace long-term thinking and seek to work with companies to build lasting and sustainable company practices that will strengthen shareholder value. Too often, companies fail to live up to their purpose or protect their social license, and FY24 saw a number of high-profile cases of companies that eroded value due to poor culture or practices. We cannot take Australia’s successful governance approach for granted. Without our members working collectively through ACSI, corporate Australia would look very different today. Our ongoing work helps keep corporate Australia and financial markets are appropriately governed and accountable.  

With that in mind, I am pleased to send you ACSI’s first annual Stewardship report. Designed to be useful in your fund’s own annual reporting, this report outlines ACSI’s work across research, policy and company engagement over the past 12 months, illustrated by individual case studies.